Method of making yarn shade cards

ABSTRACT

Fibrous yarn shade card and method of making by placing yarns in side by side array on a synthetic resin backing and bonding by heat and pressure along a transverse heat sealing line which anchors the yarn fibre along the line. A plastic cover sheet may be bonded at the same time to provide a cover strip for the card.

United States Patent 91 Glover et a1.

1 5] Oct. 29, 1974 METHOD OF MAKING YARN SHADE CARDS Inventors: RichardDonovan Glover, 90

Kingsway, Ossett, Yorkshire; John Adrian Nettleship, 3 The Crescent,Long Ln., Southowram, Yorkshire, both of England Filed: Oct. 10, 1972Appl. No.: 295,846

Related US. Application Data Continuation-in-part of Ser. No. 131,729,April 6, 1971, abandoned, which is a continuation-in-part of Ser. No.772,949, Nov. 4, 1968, abandoned.

US. Cl 156/178, 35/28.3, 35/50, 35/55, 156/269, 156/290, 161/36,161/143, 161/146, 161/147, 161/149, 206/460, 206/471 Int. Cl B32b 5/08,B32b 31/18 Field of Search 206/82, 44.11, 460, 471; 35/15, 28.3, 28.5,50, 55, 56; 161/36, 143, 142, 146, 147, 149; 156/178, 269, 290

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,527,712 2/1925 Steinthali. 206/82 2,493,968 1/1950 Hepner 161/123 2,670,843 3/1954 Steinthal206/82 FORElGN PATENTS 0R APPLICATIONS 461,973 2/1937 Great Britain3.5/55 87,592 4/1956 Norway 206/44.l 1

Primary Examiner-Ge0rge F. Lesmes Assistant Examiner-Charles E. LipseyAttorney, Agent, or Firm-Abraham A. Saffitz [5 7] ABSTRACT Fibrous yarnshade card and method of making by placingyarns in side by side array ona synthetic resin backing and bonding by heat and pressure along atransverse heat sealing line which anchors the yarn fibre along theline. A plastic cover sheet may be bonded at the same time to provide acover strip for the card.

1 Claim, 5 Drawing Figures PATENIED 0m 29 m4 I llllllfllillll HUUUUUUU/v1/ v7'oe RICHARD DONOVAN CLOVER & JOHN ADRIAN NETTLESHIP' METHOD OFMAKTNG YARN SHADE CARDS The present invention relates to a fibrous yarnshade card and to a method of making the same and constitutes acontinuation-in-part of our application Ser. No. 131,729 filed Apr. 6,197 l, which is in turn a continuation-in-part of our application Ser.No. 772,949 filed Nov. 4, I968, both now abandoned. The term yam is usedthroughout this specification to include any suitable material, whetherspun or filament threads or fibres or otherwise.

Shade cards are used for displaying colour shades of yarns such as woolyarns, and usually comprise a plurality of tufts of yarns, e.g. wooldisposed side by side and parallel. The tufts are carried by a strip ofcard which is wrapped round the tufts at one end thereof so that thetufts protrude from the card and to which the tufts are glued.

This known wool card suffers from several disadvantages, one being thatit takes too long to make and another being that it is too expensive tomanufacture.

It has been proposed, for example in British Pat. No. 46l ,973 (Him) toproduce yarn pattern cards in which the yarn samples are laid on abacking sheet of woven fabric the entire surface of which sheet has beencoated with an adhesive, and the whole of each yarn sample is adhered tothe fabric sheet by the application of heat to the adhesive coating fromone of two rollers between which the sheet and yarns are passed.

This method of sticking the yarns on the backing sheet has the samedisadvantages as have been mentioned above. Moreover, the efficiency ofthis last method depends upon the satisfactory adhesion not only betweenthe adhesive coating and the yarns but also between the coating and thebacking sheet, and in addition the application of the coating to thesheet involves an additional step in the process, whilst a still furtherstep is involved in subsequently adhering narrow strips cut off thisbacking sheet with its stuck-down assembly of yarn patterns to a card toform the finished pattern or display card. Also, this last method hasthe further disadvantage that substantially no part of the yarn samplesis left free to be handled and untouched by the adhesive.

It has also been proposed in US. Pat. No. 2,493,968 (Hepner) to secure abatt of steel wool to a backing sheet of cloth, paper or the like havinga separate adhesive coating on one surface thereof, and to secure thebatt at intervals to the sheet by application of heat and pressure. Thispatent refers specifically to the production of steel wool scouring padsand the only consideration is the mechanical one of securing the metalfibres to the backing sheet to make pads which can be used for scouringpans. etc. This patent does not refer to shade cards or sample cards andmakes no reference to yarns to fibres of textile materials for mountingon such cards, and therefore does not teach the inventive concept of thepresent application.

In a further proposal in US. Pat. No. 1,527,712 (M. Steinthal) a yarnsample card is produced by securing the inner ends of yarn tufts betweenthe edges of two sheets of material by glue, paste or adhesive whichalso secures the sheets together, leaving part of the tufts projectingfor examination and handling. This construction has the disadvantagesalready hereinbefore referred to with regard to time and expense ofproduction.

In another proposal in US. Pat. No. 2,670,843 (M. B. Steinthal) clothsamples are mounted on a backing sheet by removably attaching them to ortucking them beneath retainer strips which are secured to a card boardcarrier in such a manner that the samples are free to be removed forinspection and then replaced. The samples are not permanently secured tothe carrier or backing sheet and there is no reference to heatsealing ofany part of the carrier or samples.

it is an object of this invention to enable fibrous yarn shade cards tobe produced rapidly in an improved form and in particular in a formwhich is very simple and cheap and yet effective in displaying the yarnsto sight and touch.

It is a further object of this invention to produce fibrous yarn shadecards in which the yarns are secured to a backing sheet in such a manneras to leave the major portion of the yarns untouched by any adhesivesubstance, whereby the texture and colour of such major portion of theyarns are unimpaired by the adhesion process.

A still further object of this invention is to provide a method ofmanufacturing fibrous yarn shade cards in a fonn resulting in theadvantages hereinbefore referred to, which method will be describedhereinafter in detail.

In order to achieve these objects we mount the fibrous yarn samples on abacking sheet of synthetic thermoplastic material and use the materialof the sheet itself to bond the samples thereto by local application ofheat and pressure along a narrow band or line transverse to the lengthof the side-by-side parallel assembly of yarns or tufts to heat-sealeach yarn or tuft to the sheet, thereby leaving most of each sampleuntouched and unaffected by the bonding process. The material of thebacking sheet itself is thus fused into the spaces between the fibres orfilaments of the yarns and thus produces a firm bond which is muchsuperior and more simply effected than could be obtained by using glueor other applied adhesives. However, each yarn sample is only thussecured at one point to the backing sheet, thereby leaving most of thesample untouched by the bonding medium and therefore free to be handlesfor judging the feel of the yarn.

This concept of using a heat-sealable backing sheet and bonding thesamples thereto simply by applying heat and pressure along a narrow bandhas not previ-' ously been proposed so far as we are aware in spite ofthe existing-knowledge extending over many years as to the uses ofheat-sealing for bonding articles together, and we have producedaccording to this invention fibrous yarn shade cards of a commerciallysuccessful and advanced construction which have filled a longstandingneed.

Embodiments of the invention will now be described, by way of exampleonly, with reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a yarn shade card according to theinvention;

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic side view of apparatus for use in making shadecards as illustrated in FIG. 1;

FIGS. 3 and 4 are views similar to FIGS. 1 and 2 showing respectivelyanother embodiment of a yarn shade card according to the invention; and

FIG. 5 is a cross-section on an enlarged scale taken on the line V V inFIG. 1.

In the two embodiments now referred to the shade cards have yarn tuftsof wool, and in the interests of simplicity, reference is made only towool tufts. However, it will be appreciated that the yarn tufts of woolcan be replaced by tufts of any natural or synthetic fibrous yarns.

Referring firstly to FIG. 1, a wool shade card comprises a white backingsheet of synthetic thermoplastic material (for examplepolyvinylchloride) having heat-sealed thereto a preferably transparentfront cover sheet 12 to form an overlay of the same length as but lessthan half the width of the backing sheet 10. Trapped between the frontsheet 12 and backing sheet 10 are a plurality of individual wool yarntufts 14 which lie side by side and parallel to one another to form anarray thereof.

The front sheet 12 is heat-sealed along its periphery 15 to the backingsheet 10 and the longitudinal line of sealing 16 extends transversely tothe length of the tufts and across same. In performing the heat-sealingwelding electrodes apply heat and pressure along the periphery 15,including the line 16 and the thermoplastic material is then renderedfluent so that it fuses into the fibres of the wool and the spacestherebetween along line 16 and so when the fluent thermoplastic materialagain sets, the tufts 14 are effectively anchored on the card and thesheets 10 and 12 secured together.

The result is clearly shown in FIG. 5 where the material of the backingsheet 10 is fused through and between the tufts 14 along the transverseline 16 to secure the tufts and the front sheet 12 to said backingsheet.

FIG. 2 shows diagrammatically apparatus for use in making simultaneouslya number of shade cards as illustrated in FIG. I. The apparatuscomprises two rolls of synthetic thermoplastic material 18, 20 in webform disposed one above the other The upper roll I8 is of preferablytransparent thermoplastic sheet for forming front sheets 12 in thefinished cards, whilst the lower roll carries white syntheticthermoplastic material for forming the backing sheets 10 of the cards.

Between the rolls 18, 20 there is a reed 22 through which continuouswool yarns 24 of different colours or shades are passed from a creel(not shown). The yarns are spread out by the reed into the form of a webwith the yarns extending parallel to one another. The web of yarns issandwiched between the synthetic plastics webs from rolls 18, 20 and thecomposite sandwich web is passed between welding electrodes 26, 28 whichform the lines of sealing l5, 16 illustrated in FIG. 1.

The electrodes 28 are bar electrodes which extend transverse to thedirection of the length of the yarns and there are a number of suchelectrodes 28 so as to produce a number of shade cards simultaneously atone operation of the electrodes 26, 28. Electrode 26 is a platen whichis common in that it co-operates with each electrode 28.

The electrodes 26, 28 are pressed together and a high frequency weldingcurrent is passed therethrough so that the plastic of the sheets ofrolls 18, 20 melts along the lines defined by the electrodes 28 andfuses into the wool yarns so that the plastics sheets and the yarnsbecome sealed together.

After a number of shade cards are thus formed the sandwich web is pulledout from between the electrodes 26, 28 so that a fresh stretch ofsandwich web is pulled therebetween ready for the preparation of anotherset of cards. The formed cards are joined edge to edge at this stage andform the composite sheet 30 which passes out of the end of theapparatus.

The sheet 30 is eventually cut into strips forming the individual cardsby cutting parallel and close to each transverse line 15 of sealing andthen half of the transparent front sheet of each card is removed bycutting or other means to form cards similar to that described withreference to FIG. 1.

The only difference between the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4 from that ofFIGS. 1 and 2 is that in the embodiment of FIGS. 3 and 4 the frontplastics sheet 12 is omitted and only a single transverse line ofwelding 32 corresponding to line 16 in FIG. I is necessary for each card(see FIG. 3). Thus, the same reference numerals as have been used inFIGS. 1 and 2, as far as applicable, have been in FIGS. 3 and 4.

In this latter embodiment the thermoplastic material of the backingsheet 10 fuses into the yarns l4 and is allowed to act so that the yarnsbecome firmly adhered to the backing sheet. In the final sheet 30therefore there are a number of parallel lines of sealing 32 extendingtransversely of the sheet and spaced apart by equal amounts. To producethe individual cards, the sheet 30 is cut into strips transversely byany suitable means and at appropriate places.

With the method according to the invention, shade cards can be producedquickly and easily and as in each case all of the tuft is exposed toview, the cards can be made of less width than the known cards andtherefore are cheaper to make than the known cards.

Also, in the cards made according to each embodiment, at least part ofall the tufts is uncovered and is unimpaired by the adhesion process andis left free to be handled for judging the feel of the yarn and to bematched or differentiated by colour, texture, bulk or other quality.

Modifications may be made without departing from the scope of theinvention as defined by the appended claims. Thus, for example, themelting or fusing of the thermoplastic material may alternatively beachieved by use of dialectric, ultrasonic or any other suitable form ofheating. Also, separate sheets of synthetic plastics material could beused instead of drawing long lengths off rolls.

It will be seen that this invention provides fibrous yarn shade cardspresenting important advantages over those previously produced orproposed; namely, the assurance that no colour change will occur as aresult of the bonding or adhesion, that the texture of the major portionof the yarn tufts is unimpaired despite the bonding or adhesionoperation, and that the actual comparison between the yarn tuft samplesand the eventual product of this yarn, e.g. a tufted rug, pile velvetfabric or other article or material will be authentic because the yarnhas not been mechanically or chemically altered as would be the casewhere the tufts are secured on the cards by application of adhesive andpressure over their entire lengths.

We claim:

1. The method of making a plurality of identical yarn shade cards eachcard providing an array of colored yarns adhered to a backing sheetcomprising:

a. placing a number of individual fibrous yarns in side-by-side arrayparallel to one another across and on a backing sheet which is composedof synthetic thermoplastic material which becomes adhesive in responseto heat;

melted thermplastic material sets along said bonding lines to therebyform a plurality of arrays of yarns bonded along said lines and fusedonto said backing sheet; and,

d. cutting one yarn shade card from said plurality along a line which isparallel to said bonding lines and thereby produce a plurality ofseparated shade cards.

1. The method of making a plurality of identical yarn shade cards eachcard providing an array of colored yarns adhered to a backing sheetcomprising: a. placing a number of individual fibrous yarns inside-by-side array parallel to one another across and on a backing sheetwhich is composed of synthetic thermoplastic material which becomesadhesive in response to heat; b. applying heat and pressuresimultaneously along a plurality of spaced apart, parallel bonding lineswhich extend the length of said sheet, said bonding lines extendingtransversely to said array of yarns and across the same, the heatmelting the thermoplastic material to fuse into and to anchor the fibersof the yarn along each said line to the backing sheet; c. thereaftercooling the shade card so that the melted thermplastic material setsalong said bonding lines to thereby form a plurality of arrays of yarnsbonded along said lines and fused onto said backing sheet; and, d.cutting one yarn shade card from said plurality along a line which isparallel to said bonding lines and thereby produce a plurality ofseparated shade cards.